Follow us

Account

Agencies face call to raise grads' pay

Britain's agency bosses are under pressure to raise the starting salaries of graduate trainees amid fears that adland is losing out on the brightest university talent.

Grads at creative agencies begin on about £20,000. Media shops
offer about £18,000. This is in contrast to management
consultants, which offer up to £35,000, and merchant banks, where
graduate salaries can begin as high as £40,000.

Agency chiefs have resisted going any way to matching this because of
the cost and for fear of unsettling graduates already employed.

But Hamish Pringle, the IPA director-general, said: "In order to make
the case for talent, the industry needs to make the investment and prime
the pump with extra money."

Trade bodies are worried less about the industry's ability to attract
graduates (about 500 of them will join agencies this year), but more
about sustaining a quality intake and stopping the high fall-out
rate.